About the Author

Joe Rotter

Joe is the "blogger in chief" here at Red's in addition to being our guide service manager and partner here at Red's. He is a father of 3 spunky children his wife Kelly can only be found fishing when the temperature gets above 85 degrees and the fish are gobbling up dry flies.

In addition to being a fly fishing junkie, Joe is a hard core bowhunter, is a volunteer Hunter's Eductation Instructor, and loves riding horses with his kiddos. Joe still guides a small part of the time but spends most of his time working on web marketing, travel, and helping customers find the right tools and information for the job.

River Report, Forecast and Bass Fishing

April 8, 2016

The Yakima River is beginning a huge rise today, thanks to 80 degree weather yesterday and more of that on the way today. This surge of heat is breaking loose mountain snow melt and the warm night time temperatures are adding to that 24/7 at this point.

The entire system will likely be wiped by day's end, even above the Teanaway. The reservoirs are beginning to spill a bit of water as well which stirs things up initially. It looks like we'll be in tough shape for a week. If you have trips scheduled we're still in "wait and see" mode and as we know more we'll reach out to you with some options to do some other activities or reschedule if things don't look good. We appreciate your business and investment in our crew, so we won't take you fishing unless we expect to catch fish.

Largemouth Bass as an Option

If you would like to try and nail a few Largemouth Bass on a popper fly, you better get out here this spring. We have a guide that will take you out for an evening half day on a lake about an hour east of Ellensburg. Its a drift boat trip and there are panfish galore to mix things up and keep you busy as well. It is a really fun trip.

All these bass below were caught on this little pothole lake, all on poppers. Evening half days are available for $395. Lunch not included. We'll supply all the bass flies and appropriate rods.